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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THEEASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIAAlexandria Division

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

v.

LIFT FORWARDERS, INC.,

Defendant.

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Filed: Oct. 17, 2007

Criminal No. 1:07CR303

Violation: 15 U.S.C. § 1

INFORMATION

Lift Forwarders, Inc. is made the defendant on the charge herein.

THE UNITED STATES CHARGES THAT:

Defendant and Co-Conspirators

At all relevant times:

1. Defendant Lift Forwarders, Inc. was a corporation, organized under
the laws of the State of Oregon andheadquartered in
that State. Defendant was a freight forwarder as defined in paragraph
5 below and was in the business of providing services to the United
States Department of Defense ("DOD") related to the transportation of
household goods owned by U.S. military and civilian DOD personnel and
their families ("military household goods").

2. Various companies, partnerships, and individuals, not made defendants,
participated as co-conspirators in the offense charged herein and performed
acts and made statements in the furtherance of the conspiracy.

3. Whenever this Count refers to any act, deed, or transaction of
any company, it means that the company engaged in the act, deed, or
transaction by or through its officers, directors, employees, agents,
or other representatives while they were actively engaged in the management,
direction, or control of its affairs.

Background

4. DOD administers and coordinates its International Through Government
Bill of Lading ("ITGBL") program for the transportation of military
household goods between the United States and other countries through
the Military Traffic Management Command ("MTMC"). MTMC, renamed Surface
Distribution and Deployment Command ("SDDC") in 2004, is headquartered
in Alexandria, in the Eastern District of Virginia. Shipments of military
household goods under the ITGBL program are known as "ITGBL traffic."
One ITGBL service, known as "Code 4," requires the freight forwarder
to provide the complete door-to-door service for household goods shipments.
Code 4 service includes: packing, transportation from residence to the
port of embarkation, ocean transportation and transportation to the
new residence, all in wooden containers approved by MTMC.

5. "Freight Forwarders," also known as "forwarders" or carriers,"
are U.S. companies that submit rates, contract with MTMC, and assume
responsibility for handling ITGBL traffic.

6. Under the ITGBL program, freight forwarders file "through rates"
with MTMC (now SDDC) twice a year in a two-step bidding process. "Through
rates," expressed in dollars per hundredweight ("$/cwt"), are the rates
bid to DOD by U.S. freight forwarders and paid by DOD for all the moving
and transportation services provided in the door-to-door move between
a foreign country and the United States. The through rates are specific
to "channels," or routes, to or from a particular State, or portion
of a State, and a foreign country (e.g., Germany-Virginia).

7. Each rate filing covers a six-month period, or
"cycle." The summer cycle runs from April 1 through September 30; the
winter cycle runs from October 1 through March 31. The ITGBL cycles
are referred to by the abbreviations "IS," for International Summer,
and "IW," for International Winter, combined with the relevant year.
Thus, "IS-01" cycle is shorthand for the International Summer cycle
that ran from April 1, 2001 through September 30, 2001, whereas "IW-00"
is shorthand for the winter cycle that ran from October 2000 through
March 2001.

8. In the first step of the rate filing process,
the "initial filing," freight forwarders file rates by channel. In the
initial filing, forwarders may either file a specific rate or what is
called an "administrative high" rate. An "administrative high" rate
is a non-specific rate that is considered to be at the highest acceptable
level for handling traffic in that channel. By filing a specific rate,
or an "administrative high" rate, a forwarder preserves the right to
bid again in the second phase of the bidding process. After the initial
filing, MTMC publishes the lowest five ("low-5") rates offered, by channel.
The lowest rate bid for a channel is declared to be the "prime rate."
MTMC guarantees to the freight forwarder that sets the prime rate in
a given channel a certain percentage of the shipments in that channel
as an incentive to set the prime rate. In the second, or "me-too," phase
of the bidding process, eligible forwarders have the opportunity to
match, or "me-too," the prime rate or to file a rate higher than the
prime rate in channels where they filed rates.

9. Once the rate cycle begins, ITGBL traffic that is not awarded to
the freight forwarder that set the prime rate in a channel is awarded
to other forwarders that filed rates in the channel, in a strict order
of priority. Forwarders that have matched, or "me-tooed," the prime
rate are next in order of priority to receive shipments. So long as
these companies and the company that set the prime rate have the capacity
to handle the volume of shipments required to be transported, they will
be awarded all the traffic moving in that channel during the cycle.
Any remaining traffic is offered to the forwarders that filed or matched
the next lowest rate. This process continues at each rate level, by
channel, until all the traffic is distributed. Typically, over the course
of the cycle, the vast majority of ITGBL traffic moves at the prime
rate level. Thus, a forwarder generally must "me-too" the prime rate
in order to be awarded any traffic.

10. MTMC requires that each freight forwarder certify or affirm in
a Certificate of Independent Pricing ("CIP"), incorporated in its Tender
of Service Signature Sheet, that each bid submitted was derived independently,
without communication, agreement, understanding, collusion, or any other
action in respect to rates or fares with any carrier, competitor, or
agent thereof. According to MTMC regulations, a freight forwarder must
have on file with MTMC a properly executed CIP before its rate submission
may be accepted. Under MTMC rules, by filing rates to transport military
household goods, a carrier certifies that it understands and has complied
with its previously executed CIP.

11. For the IW-00 cycle, freight forwarders were required to file
initial rates by May 23, 2000; "me-too" rates were due by August 1,
2000. For the IS-01 cycle, freight forwarders were required to file
initial rates by November 28, 2000; "me-too" rates were due by January
16, 2001.

Conspiracy to Restrain Trade(15 U.S.C. § 1)

12. Beginning in or about May 2000 and continuing until in or about
September 2001 ("the relevant period"), the exact dates being unknown
to the United States, defendant and co-conspirators, including a corporate
co-conspirator ("FF-1"), entered into and engaged in a combination and
conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition and to restrain trade
in the transportation of military household goods. FF-1 was a U.S. freight
forwarder that filed "me-too" rates in multiple channels in which defendant
Lift also filed "me-too" rates during the relevant period. The charged
combination and conspiracy engaged in by defendant and co-conspirators
in unreasonable restraint of interstate and foreign trade and commerce
violated Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1.

13. The charged combination and conspiracy consisted of a continuing
agreement, understanding, and concert of action among defendant and
co-conspirators, the substantial terms of which were to rig bids and
to allocate Code 4 shipments of military household goods.

Manner and Means of the Conspiracy

14. For purposes of forming and carrying out the charged combination
and conspiracy, defendant and co-conspirators did the things they combined
and conspired to do, including, among other things:

agreed that defendant, in the second bidding round, would file
rates in certain ITGBL traffic channels identified to it by co-conspirator
FF-1, at price levels specified by co-conspirator FF-1;

agreed that, in exchange for payments of $1/cwt, defendant would
transfer to co-conspirator FF-1 responsibility for handling the ITGBL
traffic shipments assigned to it by DOD; and

agreed that co-conspirator FF-1 would assume responsibility for
handling the ITGBL traffic shipments transferred to it by defendant,
along with the risk of profit or loss on such shipments.

15. For the IW-00 cycle, for the purposes of executing the charged
combination and conspiracy, defendant and co-conspirators made each
and every agreement described in paragraph 14 and took acts in furtherance
thereof.

16. For the IS-01 cycle, for the purposes of executing the charged
combination and conspiracy, defendant and co-conspirators made each
and every agreement described in paragraph 14 and took acts in furtherance
thereof.

Interstate and Foreign Trade and Commerce

17. During the relevant period, rates, proposals, contracts, invoices
for payment, payments, and other documents essential to the provision
of the transportation of military household goods were transmitted in
interstate and foreign trade and commerce between and among offices
of defendant, co-conspirator FF-1, and MTMC, located in various States
and foreign countries.

18. During the relevant period, defendant and co-conspirator FF-1
transported, or arranged for the transportation of, substantial quantities
of military household goods, in a continuous and uninterrupted flow
of interstate and foreign commerce between various foreign countries
and the United States through various U.S. ports and States to final
destinations in various States, including a substantial volume of traffic
into and out of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

19. During the relevant period, MTMC received bids to transport military
household goods by interstate wire and mail from the offices of defendant
and co-conspirator FF-1.

20. During the relevant period, DOD paid for the transportation of
military household goods by check, wire transfer, and other monetary
instruments transmitted to the bank accounts of defendant and co-conspirator
FF-1 in a continuous and uninterrupted flow of interstate commerce.

21. During the relevant period, the activities of defendant and co-conspirator
FF-1 in connection with the transportation of military household goods
were within the flow of, and substantially affected, interstate and
foreign trade and commerce.

Jurisdiction and Venue

22. During the relevant period, MTMC received bids to perform the
transportation of military household goods by interstate wire and mail
at its offices in Alexandria in the Eastern District of Virginia initiated
by or originating from defendant and co-conspirator FF-1 and those working
at their behest.

23. The combination and conspiracy charged in this Information was
carried out, in part, within the Eastern District of Virginia within
the period of the statue of limitations, as extended pursuant to agreement
between the defendant and the United States.